Krugman does his usual ass-kicking today, taking on the Drug Companies, and the myth's around them. They say, "we need to charge high prices so we can innovate and invent". Do you believe that? I don't. And Krugman illustrates how this is a lie:
In her book "The Truth About the Drug Companies," Marcia Angell, the former editor in chief of The New England Journal of Medicine, shows convincingly that drug companies spend far more on marketing than they do on research - and that much of the marketing is designed to sell "me, too" drugs, which are no better than the cheaper drugs they replace. It should be possible to pay less for medicine, yet encourage more real innovation.
More on the flip...
Bingo.
Drug companies aren't trying to cure people, they are trying to make drugs that can be sold to the largest group of people at the highest price. There is no money in drugs that cure rare diseases. But, man, there is some loot in giving older men erections. Or a "better" allergy pill, or a "better" sleeping pill.
I am reminded of the Jimmy Eat World song "Bleed American"--"I'm not crazy cause I take the right pills everyday".
Or perhaps more relevant, Chris Rock's rant about "no cure for cancer". There ain't no money in the cure.
Wasn't it Clinton who let Big Pharma push their pills on TV? I'm pretty sure it wasn't until the 1990s that prescription drugs were on the TV. I think that's a shame. Oh Bill and his "triangulation"....
Such a small, small battle to waste energy on against the Bush Administration--it still sucks. And it's not getting better any time soon.
cross-posted @ jScoop.org